KTVX faces FCC fine

The Federal Communications Commission wants to fine KTVX-Ch. 4 $27,500 for an "NYPD Blue" episode that aired almost five years ago.

Actually, the FCC wants to fine 52 ABC owned and affiliated stations $27,500 each. That's a total of $1.43 million for all the ABC stations in the Central and Mountain time zones.

And, yes, it seems unfair to fine ONLY the stations in those two time zones.

The "Blue" episode, which aired on Feb. 25, 2003, featured a scene with Connie (Charlotte Ross) getting ready to take a shower and being surprised by Sipowicz's (Dennis Franz) young son. According to the FCC, the scene featured a shot "panning down her naked back for a lingering shot of her buttocks," which constituted "explicit and graphic depictions of sexual organs" that was "titillating and shocking."

I've been criticizing "NYPD Blue" for its unnecessary nudity since before the show premiered. (After I saw the pilot, of course.) And I'm certainly not going to defend it now.

But to suggest that seeing naked buttocks in the 10th season of "NYPD Blue" — the 210th episode of the series — was "shocking" is, well, ridiculous. It wasn't even mildly surprising.

(Maybe the episode's title — "Bottom's Up" — caught the FCC's attention.)

ABC is left to defend the scene by making unconvincing arguments about artistic integrity and how the scene was integral to the storyline about how it can be awkward for a single parent to bring a new person into his life. That, of course, is silly. The same thing could have been accomplished without the nudity.

Nudity always was nothing more than a ratings ploy on "NYPD Blue." A rather effective ploy, but it was never absolutely necessary to tell any story.

But the network's argument that the content of the show "was well known to the viewing public" after more than 200 episodes is irrefutable.

It might cost KTVX and 51 other stations $27,500 apiece, however. Even though the current owners didn't have anything to do with the station in 2003, they're still responsible for the fine (if ABC loses its appeal).

This incident predated congressional action that raised the amount stations could be fined to $325,000.

Why are two time zones being picked on? Because "Blue" aired at 9 p.m. Central and Mountain, not 10 p.m.

But, um, prime time has been 7-10 p.m. Central and Mountain — as opposed to 8-11 p.m. on the East and West coasts — more or less since TV began.

How did it just suddenly become a problem?

And then there's the sadly amusing statement from FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor: "Our action today should serve as a reminder to all broadcasters that Congress and American families continue to be concerned about protecting children from harmful material and that the FCC will enforce the laws of the land vigilantly."

Um, isn't there some sort of time element inherent in being vigilant? If this is so egregious, how did it take 59 months to decide something had to be done?

If it took your landlord almost 5 years to deal with a dangerous situation, you probably wouldn't describe him as vigilant.

This is your government at work, folks.

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com